Ever since Rahul Gandhi left for India Jodo Yatra, Congress leaders are trying to make him a god. Congress visit has received good response in all the states of South India. People are joining the journey and through social media a better message is being sent across the country as well. Rahul Gandhi’s image as a leader is also improving but it does not mean that he should be made a god. He is also being compared with the great men of the country. It is being compared with Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March to Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Yatra and Chandrashekhar’s visit to India. This is a good thing for both the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi. But Congress leaders are harming both them and Congress by making them God or comparing them with Gods. They are taking Congress towards politics in which Congress is not a very good player.
Recently, many Congress leaders compared Rahul to different Gods. Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Kunal Choudhary compared him to Lord Ram. After this, Maharashtra Congress state president Nana Patole said that ‘R se Ram and R se Rahul banta hai’. He made Rahul directly Lord Ram. Meanwhile, Rajasthan government minister Parsadi Lal Meena compared Rahul’s journey with Lord Ram’s journey from Lanka to Ayodhya. He went a step ahead and said that Rahul is traveling longer than Lord Ram. Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra said in the past that Rahul is like Sai Baba of Shirdi. Till a few days ago, Rahul was said to be a devotee of Gods. He used to call himself a Shiv Bhakt and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has also described him as a Shiv Bhakt. But now instead of a devotee, he has been made directly to be God.
In fact in the last seven to eight years it has been established through propaganda that being secular and liberal is not a good thing. To be secular and liberal means to be pro-Muslim and to be anti-national. Congress has become a victim of this narrative. Then he made many efforts to change the image of Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Under this effort, Rahul traveled from Mansarovar to Kashi Vishwanath. He described himself as a janeudhari and a kaul brahmin. Went to many places for worship. But they did not get much success in this because BJP and Aam Aadmi Party were already doing politics in this space and even Congress or Rahul Gandhi cannot do such politics even if they want. Remember how in the past Arvind Kejriwal directly described himself as an incarnation of Krishna. Earlier he used to call himself Hanuman Bhakt and now he has said that he was born on Janmashtami and he was born to destroy Kansas. He has gone a step ahead and suggested that the picture of Lakshmi and Ganesha be placed on the rupee. Think, can Rahul do such politics?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also described by his party leaders as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Everyone saw how at the time of foundation stone laying of the temple in Ayodhya, his picture was made bigger than Lord Rama and he was taking Lord Rama’s finger to the temple. After this, in the elections of Uttar Pradesh this year, this song was played a lot that ‘Jo Ram Ko Laye Hai, Hum Unko Laayenge’. Recently, when he reached Ayodhya to celebrate Diwali, Lord Ram disappeared from all the advertisements and cutouts. Everywhere there was a picture of him and Yogi Adityanath wearing saffron. Even before this, BJP’s big leader Uma Bharti had described the top three leaders of the party – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi as Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh. BJP has been doing such politics before and now the Aam Aadmi Party has also entered into the same politics. But this kind of politics has never been in line with the ideology of the Congress. So the party needs to avoid such politics.
BJP has not become an overnight champion in such politics. She has been doing this kind of politics for decades. In the name of religion, religious symbols and deities, BJP has done politics and achieved success. Therefore she has been established among the general public as the sole or supreme representative of this politics. Aam Aadmi Party is also doing such politics from the very beginning. Hindutva and nationalism have been the core elements of his politics. This aspect of Arvind Kejriwal’s ideology was exposed since the time of anti-corruption campaign led by Anna Hazare. In contrast, the Congress Party followed the great values of independence and the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi before independence and adopted the values of the Constitution after independence. That is, the economic policies of liberty, equality, secularism, liberalism and mixed socialism were adopted by the Congress. The image of every Congress leader has been enhanced by doing politics around these ideas. Rahul is also the representative of these ideas and keep in mind these are the ideas, which are the foundation of democracy. How can Congress leave this foundation?
Be it Congress or Rahul Gandhi, both the great men of the country as well as great religious characters can take inspiration. You can talk about embracing their ideals. But equating Rahul with Gods or equating him with Gods can be harmful for both Congress and Rahul. Right now he has the image of a liberal, democratic and secular leader but the rhetoric of Congress leaders can damage his image. Even if the Congress makes every effort, it cannot create an image of Rahul as a religious leader, nor can the Congress be made a party doing politics of religion. On the contrary, the Congress may also lose its political deposits in this effort. So, this message should be given to all the leaders and workers from the very top level in the Congress that they should not make Rahul a God or drag the Congress into the politics in the name of gods and goddesses.
